I’ve spoken with someone who was arrested at a direct action protest within the past week, who wanted to share their story.

This person says they were mistreated during arrest by PPB and then questioned by federal officers before being charged and released.

A thread

This person says they were stopped by an unmarked police vehicle while leaving and taken into custody. They objected to a search of the car they were in, as well as a backpack, but officers conducted a search anyway, citing “probable cause.”

This person made multiple requests for officers to use the proper pronouns when referring to them, but the officers ignored these requests and made other mocking, derogatory comments.

This person says the arresting PPB officers never read their Miranda rights; this person was told they would be read their rights once they were in federal custody (which did take place, more than an hour after they were originally detained).

This person says they were then interviewed for roughly an hour by federal officers, who refused to identify which agency they worked for, inside the Justice Center (not the federal courthouse across the street).

Lines of questioning reportedly included:

- the arrestee’s Twitter posts

- why is “antifa” breaking up with BLM?

- who’s running “black bloc”?

- what does “antifa” have against McMenamins?

- is Babymetal a faction of “antifa”?

Since the arrest, this person has been doxxed and threatened by right-wing trolls and understandably fears for their safety. This person also believes they are under law enforcement surveillance, often seeing marked and unmarked police vehicles parked on their street.

However, this person wants it to be known that this experience won’t deter them from voicing their opinion and standing up for their beliefs. If anything, it’s made them even more passionate.

Federal law enforcement continues to investigate protest activity in Portland as if there were a highly structured, top-down organization behind it all.

If this is the best analysis our country’s national security institutions can manage, I really don’t know what to say.

But they’re definitely a bunch of squares if they don’t know Babymetal.

/end

A quick clarification about the Babymetal thing: this was in reference to a piece of band merchandise that the arrestee had with them. As far as I know, the feds are not questioning everybody they arrest about Japanese idol groups.